|
THE MARCH MUST GO ON
It’s marching time. Each year around 28 June, the date on which in 1969
riots broke out in New York City’s Greenwich Village following the
police raid of the Stonewall Inn, countries across the world stage
their queer pride marches, with varying degrees of success.
Cities like Chicago and San Francisco, for example, can expect hundreds
of thousands of marchers at their parades. But in India this weekend,
only a few hundred brave souls marched in three of that country’s major
cities, Kolkata, New Delhi and Bangalore. This was the first year
Indian activists staged nationally co-ordinated pride marches, and
their primary goal was to protest the continued existence of Section
377 of the Indian Penal Code, a relic from British colonisation in
which sexual acts ‘against the order of nature’ are still criminalised.
Feedback would suggest the marches were both peaceful and enthusiastic.
The picture was less encouraging in parts of Central and Eastern
Europe, however, where weekend marches in the Czech Republic and
Bulgaria respectively were disrupted by the presence of right-wing
extremists pelting marchers with eggs and tear gas, leading to several
arrests. (Interestingly, the Czech Republic is one of the more liberal
nations on same-sex couples, having legalised civil unions in 2006.)
Here in the larger cities of Australia we’ve been marching for so long
now – with police support, no less – that some question the relevance
or need for Mardi Gras, the biggest parade of all. But marches in
countries like India and Poland serve to remind us at a global level
how far some nations have come on queer rights and visibility – and how
far many still have to go. Only a decade ago would a pride march in
Delhi have seemed impossible, just as today marches in Bangladesh or
Saudi Arabia would be extremely unlikely where such nations may still
impose the death penalty for homosexual acts.
In a modern age where technology allows citizens of many nations
unprecedented opportunity to see what’s going on in other parts of the
world, Australia, the US, UK, European and all other nations staging
large pride marches must continue to provide an ‘end-goal’ image of
countries where not only has homosexuality been decriminalised and/or
civil unions or partnership registries provided for same-sex couples,
but queer people enjoy relatively high levels of safety and security to
march without fear of violent retaliation.
Imagine how devastating it could be for our more oppressed neighbours
to see that we’ve effectively given up on them because here on our own
small chunk of the planet we’ve become so accustomed to having rights,
that we no longer see a need to march in global solidarity. Australia
must necessarily lead by example.
Sam Butler
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
